Witnesses: "Gunman Was Not Alone"

At the tenth hearing of the Hrant Dink murder trial, witnesses were heard at the Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court.

During the morning part of the hearing, the witness statement of Mesut Öz, whose statement had been taken by order, was read. In the statement Öz said that he had walked along the Atatürk Street in Bakırköy in search of work a few days before the murder, that he had collided with Hrant Dink, had fallen and twisted his ankle. He said that he and Hrant Dink later sat down in a cafe nearby the hospital for around half an hour and chatted. He added that Ogün Samast watched them, standing next to a nearby tree, and that there had been another person there, "more heavy-set, wearing a brown jacket", talking to Samast and later leaving.

When questioned by head judge Erkan Canak, suspected gunman Samast said, "I don't know Bakırköy. There's nothing to say. I only went to (the Istanbul districts of) Bayrampaşa, Şişli and Eyüp. I even forget where Bakırköy is."

Bahri Bayram Belen, one of the Dink family lawyers, asked for witness Öz to be brought to court, and for him to speak in court on a day when all the suspects, including those who were being tried without detention, were in court.

Another witness, Mesme Havva, said that she was walking to the grocery store where she worked together with her friend on the day of the murder, when, about 10-15 metres from the scene of the crime, Samast and a friend pushed through between them. She said that they had told the two men, "If you had asked, we would have let you pass."

According to Havva, Samast was not alone at the crime scene. After three shots had been fired, a person waiting at the side pointed to the Şafak street, and they ran off together, passing through a shopping arcade. She said that the second person could have been Yasin Hayal, a defendant on trial as an instigator of the murder.

Hayal also spoke in court, beginning with an apology "for my previously aggressive behaviour" during court hearings. He then said that he was in Trabzon on the day of the murder, and that the Trabzon police had recordings of this. "There is no need to say anything else."

Samast claimed that when he was running away via the Şafak street, a guy coming out of a restaurant ran alongside him. He claimed not to know why he was running and said that he (Samast) passed the guy and could not remember anything else.

During Havva's statement, defendants who were laughing were warned by the head judge.

The hearing was attended by Hrant Dink's widow Rakel Dink, Orhan and Yervant Dink, CHP Istanbul MP Prof. Dr. Sacid Yıldız, widow of singer Ahmet Kaya, Gülten Kaya, caricaturist Kemal Gökhan Gürses, theatre actor Orhan Alkaya, journalist Ali Bayramoğlu, writer Adalet Ağaoğlu, Sema Kılıçer, the EU Turkey Commission Political Advisor, Hülya Üçpınar of the Turkey Human Rights Foundation (TİHV), Ali Koç from the Izmir branch of the Contemporary Lawyers' Association (ÇHD) and Yücel Sayman, former president of the Istanbul Bar Association. (TK/AG)